"From an American perspective two ominous trends havebeen developing since Sept 11, 2001 a growing Americanreadiness to hurt other people abroad, externalsadism, and a growing readiness too hurt itself athome, internal masochism. The readiness to hurt otherpeople abroad has taken the form increasing of themilitarization of American foreign policy and thereadiness to hurt ourselves is taking the form of theerosion of civil liberties,"...

"George W. Bush could succeed where Osama bin Laden failed in provoking a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West by launching a 'pre-emptive' attack on Iraq." These are some of the concluding words of Dilip Hiro in his latest book "Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm."

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said yesterday he will sever ties with any of his global clients if they present conflicts of interest in the September 11 investigation. President Bush last week appointed Kissinger to lead an "independent" investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks.

The New York Times is reporting the government has been secretly monitoring thousands of Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans. Bush administration officials also warned the government will detain Iraqis or Iraqi sympathizers in the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page titled "Post-Sept. 11 Watch List Acquires Life of Its Own" by staff reporter Ann Davis. It began,

“When a patron at the New York-New York casino plugged his frequent-player card into a slot machine one day this summer, something strange happened: An alert warned the casino’s surveillance officials that an associate of a suspected terrorist might be on the grounds.